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International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Ratification of the Istanbul Convention will mean that women and girls will be guaranteed the right to live lives free from violence.
- it will guarantee a coherent legal European framework to prevent and combat violence against women and gender-based violence and to protect the victims;
- it will provide greater coherence and efficiency in the EU’s internal and external policies;
- it will ensure better monitoring and implementation of EU laws, programmes and funds relevant to the Convention, as well as more adequate and better collection of comparable data on violence against women at EU level; an EU accession to the Convention would oblige Member States to collect and send accurate and comparable data to Eurostat, which is essential for developing effective policies and awareness-raising campaigns;
- it will reinforce the EU’s accountability on the international stage;
- more accountability: the EU will have an active role in monitoring the proper and effective application of the Convention, as a member of the Committee of the parties (representatives of those who have ratified), the EU would participate in electing the Group of experts and adopting recommendations concerning the implementation of the Convention. This would strengthen the EU’s international role in the fight against violence against women
- areas covered by the Convention that EU accession will have an impact, include : prevention, fight against discrimination, cooperation in judicial and criminal matters (in particular mutual recognition), victims’ protection and support, protection of children, protection of women asylum seekers and refugees, better data collection.
- EU accession should respect the holistic approach followed by the Convention, i.e. the adoption of integrated policies, combining actions in various areas led by multiple stakeholders (judicial, police and social authorities, NGOs, local and regional associations, governments), at all levels of governance.